A displaced family from the minority Ezidi sect, fleeing the violence in the town of Sinjar, waits for food while resting at the Iraqi-Syrian border crossing in Fishkhabour, Duhok province August 13, 2014. Reuters

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SULAIMANI — Nearly 3,100 Ezidis abducted by Islamic State (ISIS) militants still remain in captivity, a Kurdish official said on Friday (July 13).

Head of the Ezidi Abductees Affairs Office, Hussein Qaidi told NRT that 3,312 Ezidis had been rescued from the militants since ISIS attack on Sinjar and Nineveh Plains on August 3, 2014.

“The main reason that we could not rescue all the abductees is that the Iraqi government has not helped us in this matter. This is a reason why there are still our families in ISIS captivity,” he added.

Efforts continue to rescue the rest of the abductees, he noted.

ISIS systematically killed, captured, and enslaved thousands of Ezidis when it overran the town of Sinjar in August 2014.

Proclaiming a theocratic caliphate based on a radical interpretation of Sunni Islam, ISIS has tried to erase the Ezidis’ identity by forcing men to choose between conversion to Islam or death, raping girls as young as nine, selling women at slave markets, and drafting boys to fight.